""HALLIBURTON!" CHIRPED THE employee who answered the telephone in Tehran.

[understandinglife]

"HALLIBURTON!" CHIRPED THE employee who answered the telephone in Tehran. Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran, part of the "axis of evil"? Yes, the company was a tenant, confirmed the guard in the lobby of a building on Bucharest Street when we dropped in one recent afternoon. The staff rarely invited guests up to their tenth-floor offices, said the guard, and the company's name was not among those displayed on the lobby wall. Halliburton finally dispatched two Iranian staff members to ask this reporter to leave. Said the guard softly: "We're not too sure what the company is up to."

Actually it's no big mystery. In January Halliburton and the local Oriental Kish Oil won a $308 million contract to drill for gas in Iran's giant South Pars field. "Halliburton and Oriental Kish are the final winners," Akbar Torkan, managing director of Pars Oil & Gas, said on national TV. The statement sparked fury among Iran's hardliners. One newspaper warned, "Footsteps of the Yankees heard moving in on Iran's oil sector."

While Halliburton insists its activities in Iran are entirely legal, some in Congress claim that the Houston oil services giant is milking a loophole in the U.S. embargo that allows foreign subsidiaries of American companies to work in Iran. "They are operating on the very boundaries of legality of U.S. law," says Dan Katz, chief counsel for Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D--New Jersey), who has long argued that Halliburton--once run by Vice President Dick Cheney--is exploiting its political clout.

So are U.S. companies tiptoeing back into Iran, ten years after Bill Clinton imposed sanctions? Iran's deputy petroleum minister for international affairs, Hadi Nejad Hosseinian, certainly thinks so: "The U.S. oil companies are in touch with us," he told FORTUNE in his office in Tehran. "American companies are very interested in investing in Iran," he said, adding that a top U.S. oil executive, unnamed, visited him in Tehran last summer. "They want to show their objection to the U.S. administration." In Halliburton's case, it says Oriental Kish contracted out the work to Halliburton Products & Services Ltd., or HPSL, a Dubai-based subsidiary registered in the Cayman Islands, which works solely in Iran. "These entities and activities are staffed and managed by non-U.S. personnel," says company spokesman Wendy Hall. "Halliburton's business is clearly permissible." A second Houston oil services company, Baker Hughes, is weighing doing part of the work with Oriental Kish, according to sources close to the talks.

More at the link to Vivienne Walt's article Halliburton's Tehran Hideway:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/02/07/8250445

Isn't it about time to call the cops and have Bush and Cheney arrested or should we just do a citizens' arrest?


Peace.

[Independent_Liberal]

1. And remember what Lyndon LaRouche said, UL...

IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST! IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST!

W is for Watergate.

:)

[mom cat]

32. Sometimes that fruitcake calls one right! lol

[liberalitch]

2. Public stoning..... given the choice I'll always pick that.

[Coexist]

3. holy crap.

[mod mom]

4. bookmarked for later. Thanks UL.

[leftchick]

5. It would be nice if Lou Dobbs talked about this tonight

K&Red

[FearofFutility]

6. It's so incestuous n/t

[Dunvegan]

7. If all (but Halliburton) have to by law stay out of Iran...

...that perfectly positions Halliburton for first grabs in case of invasion or instability.

Bastards...business as usual.

[Peace Patriot]

8. If I were Iran, I woulnd't be so calm about Halliburton or any company

with "Baker" in its name moving into my country.

[yodermon]

9. Wasn't a Halliburton subsidiary working in IRAQ

as well during the late '90s? off the top o my head, so no link.

[understandinglife]

22. "Halliburton's Iraq Deals Greater Than Cheney Has Said"

Halliburton's Iraq Deals Greater Than Cheney Has Said: Affiliates Had $73 Million in Contracts

By Colum Lynch
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, June 23, 2001; Page A01

UNITED NATIONS -- During last year's presidential campaign, Richard B. Cheney acknowledged that the oil-field supply corporation he headed, Halliburton Co., did business with Libya and Iran through foreign subsidiaries. But he insisted that he had imposed a "firm policy" against trading with Iraq.

"Iraq's different," he said.

According to oil industry executives and confidential United Nations records, however, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company.

Two former senior executives of the Halliburton subsidiaries say that, as far as they knew, there was no policy against doing business with Iraq. One of the executives also says that although he never spoke directly to Cheney about the Iraqi contracts, he is certain Cheney knew about them.

More at the link:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/02.03E.Hallib.Iraq.htm

And, check who the Cheney apologist is in this article ... none other than WHIGer Matalin ...


Peace.

[understandinglife]

23. The Guardian, Mar 12 2003: "Cheney is still paid by Pentagon contractor"

Cheney is still paid by Pentagon contractor: Bush deputy gets up to $1m from firm with Iraq oil deal

Robert Bryce in Austin, Texas and Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday March 12, 2003

The Guardian

Halliburton, the Texas company which has been awarded the Pentagon's contract to put out potential oil-field fires in Iraq and which is bidding for postwar construction contracts, is still making annual payments to its former chief executive, the vice-president Dick Cheney. The payments, which appear on Mr Cheney's 2001 financial disclosure statement, are in the form of "deferred compensation" of up to $1m (£600,000) a year.

When he left Halliburton in 2000 to become George Bush's running mate, he opted not to receive his leaving payment in a lump sum but instead have it paid to him over five years, possibly for tax reasons.

<clip>

The company would not say how much the payments are. The obligatory disclosure statement filled by all top government officials says only that they are in the range of $100,000 and $1m. Nor is it clear how they are calculated.

<clip>

KBR has already benefited considerably from the "war on terror". It has so far been awarded contracts worth nearly $33m to build the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for al-Qaida suspects.

<clip>

More at the link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,912515,00.html

[understandinglife]

25. "Criminologist Edwin Sutherland could not have imagined the heights of war

... profiteering reached by Halliburton in Iraq. In his 1949 groundbreaking study White Collar Crime, Sutherland wrote about the role of corporations in last century’s world wars. He observed that: “…the large corporations in time of war, when Western civilization was endangered, did not sacrifice their own interests and participate wholeheartedly in a national policy, but instead they attempted to use this emergency as an opportunity for extraordinary enrichment of themselves at the expense of others. … Profits are more important to large corporations than patriotism.”

As the largest contractor in the war on terror, Halliburton deserves all the scrutiny it has received — disregarding the partisan expectation that any resulting scandal would rub off on ex-CEO Dick Cheney. Recently, John Kerry finally took off the gloves and used the H-word in a blistering attack on the Bush administration’s Iraq quagmire.

“As president,” Kerry said, “I will stop companies like Halliburton from profiting at the expense of our troops and taxpayers. … And as commander in chief, I will have two words for companies that cheat the U.S. military: ‘You're fired.'”

Leading Pentagon watchdogs have been calling for Halliburton’s debarment or suspension from Pentagon contracts since August. At that time the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) issued a memo complaining that Halliburton could not account for more than $1.8 billion of $4.3 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait. For the third time, the DCAA recommended that the Pentagon not pay Halliburton until it coughed up all the receipts.

The long list of waste, fraud, bribery and other abuses associated with Halliburton’s Iraq contracts now fill volumes. Vigilant oversight by Rep. Henry Waxman’s office and Pentagon investigators—with the help of company whistleblowers—have uncovered attempts to charge taxpayers $45 per case of soda, $100 per bag of laundry, $10,000 a day to use five-star hotels in Kuwait. (Meanwhile, the troops are sweating it out in tents in the desert). There’s been $167 million worth of price gouging for imported gasoline, and $186 million charged for meals that were never served to the troops, and a $6 million kickback to two employees (fired by the company) from a subcontractor.

More from Charlie Cray's September 27, 2004 "Bringing Halliburton To Heel" article here:

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/bringing_halliburton_to_heel.php

And, always check http://www.halliburtonwatch.org for the ever-expanding Halliburton rap sheet.


Peace.

[yodermon]

30. I guess so then!

Thanks ul :toast:

[Harald Ragnarsson]

46. I'm sure there's nothing criminal there

I mean, it's not like he knew Halliburton's profits were going to go up because of war, so he'd be better off taking deferred instead of lump sum payments.

:sarcasm:

What an unbelievable crock of shit. That has to be one of the most absolutely criminal things I've ever heard of. If it was just money, he ought to go to jail for a long time, but when you count up the 100's of thousands of dead bodies, this asshole is probably the biggest mass murderer for gain in all of history. It's hard to imagine what punishment he ought to get. In remembrance of 911 victims, I suggest tossing him off a thousand foot cliff. Not a straight up and down one either, I want him to bounce a few times.

[dysfunctional press]

10. a million people surrounding the white house, shouting "Citizen's Arrest"

ala gomer pyle has long been a recent fantasy of mine.

[spuddonna]

11. Here's another thread on this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=502853&mesg_id=502853

[understandinglife]

17. Thank you!!

Peace.

[Jane Austin]

12. This story is more than a year old . . .

and I had never heard a word about it before.

Or if I did, I sure don't remember it.

Did anybody cover it?

[understandinglife]

14. Had read it when it appeared. Seemed even more relevant as ...

... the Iran war drums are being beaten ever louder, and the UAE is suddenly being noticed by more and more Americans ...


Peace.

[Clara T]

13. just goin' where the oil is

Right Dick?


"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

~ Frank Zappa, 1977

[Sydnie]

15. As usual UL

[Greyskye]

16. K&R

Get thee to the 2-star section!

[understandinglife]

18. Additional relevant resources on Iran, Cheney, Dubai and Halliburton.

"If these companies are going through the back door to invest in terrorist nations, Congress must take action to immediately close, lock and seal those doors," Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said in February 2004.1

As investigators from 60 Minutes discovered, Halliburton has used an offshore subsidiary incorporated in the Cayman Islands (where the company has no oil and gas construction or engineering operations) to trade with Iran, a country that the Bush administration has described as part of an "axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world."2

Federal law disallows American companies from transacting business with nations that sponsor terrorism, but foreign subsidiaries of such companies are not banned from such transactions. In May 2004, the U.S. Senate voted against legislation that would have stopped companies like Halliburton from using offshore subsidiaries to invest in Iran. The legislation was defeated in a 50-49 vote, mostly along party lines.

As CEO of Halliburton, Mr. Cheney lobbied the Clinton administration to ease sanctions on Libya and Iran, according to various news reports. "I think we'd be better off if we, in fact, backed off those sanctions , didn't try to impose secondary boycotts on companies .. trying to do business there," Cheney told an Australian television interviewer in April 1998.3

Much more at the link:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/iran.html

Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran's Nuclear Team

by Jason Leopold

Scandal-plagued Halliburton, the oil services company once headed by Vice President Dick was secretly working with one of Iran’s top nuclear program officials on natural gas related projects and, allegedly, selling the officials' oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, according to Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies’ business dealings.

Just last week a National Security Council report said Iran was a decade away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. That time frame could arguably have been significantly longer if Halliburton, which just reported a 284 percent increase in its fourth quarter profits due to its Iraq reconstruction contracts, was not actively providing the Iranian government with the financial means to build a nuclear weapon.

Now comes word that Halliburton, which has a long history of flouting U.S. law by conducting business with countries the Bush administration said has ties to terrorism, was working with Cyrus Nasseri, the vice chairman of the board of directors of Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies, on oil development projects in Tehran. Nasseri is also a key member of Iran’s nuclear development team.

<clip>

Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995, while Vice President Cheney was chief executive of the company and in possible violation of U.S. Sanctions According to a February 2001 report in the Wall Street Journal, "Halliburton Products & Services Ltd. works behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block. A brochure declares that the company was registered in 1975 in the Cayman Islands, is based in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai and is "non-American." But, like the sign over the receptionist's head, the brochure bears the company's name and red emblem, and offers services from Halliburton units around the world." Moreover, mail sent to the company’s offices in Tehran and the Cayman Islands is forwarded to the company’s Dallas headquarters.

More at the link:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-21.htm

Convenient time to be bringing all of this to the attention of our fellow citizens.

Let's cuff'um and book'um ...


Peace.

[robertpaulsen]

19. Halliburton and Iran. In bed with eachother since Dick was in charge.

Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995, while Vice President Cheney was chief executive of the company and in possible violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to a February 2001 report in the Wall Street Journal, “U.S. laws have banned most American commerce with Iran. Halliburton Products & Services Ltd. works behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block. A brochure declares that the company was registered in 1975 in the Cayman Islands, is based in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai and is "non-American." But, like the sign over the receptionist's head, the brochure bears the Dallas company's name and red emblem, and offers services from Halliburton units around the world.”

An executive order signed by former President Bill Clinton in March 1995 prohibits "new investments (in Iran) by U.S. persons, including commitment of funds or other assets." It also bars U.S. companies from performing services "that would benefit the Iranian oil industry." Violation of the order can result in fines of as much as $500,000 for companies and up to 10 years in jail for individuals.”

snip

During a trip to the Middle East in March 1996, Cheney told a group of mostly U.S. businessmen that Congress should ease sanctions in Iran and Libya to foster better relationships—a statement that when read today seems hypocritical considering the Bush administration’s foreign policy.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/views03/1028-10.htm

[lala_rawraw]

20. Treason, no?

[spuddonna]

24. Dick to W: "Hey, what's a little treason between friends!"

:eyes: These people have no shame...

[rucky]

43. They've done this before.

Dealt with Iran under embargo...I think they were fined for it.

[understandinglife]

21. "Did it ever occur to you that when President Bush says, "Money is the ...

... the lifeblood of terrorist operations," he's talking about your money -- and every other American's money?

Just about everyone with a 401(k) pension plan or mutual fund has money invested in companies that are doing business in so-called rogue states.

In other words, there are U.S. companies that are helping drive the economies of countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, all places that have sponsored terrorists. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reported on this story last January.

"The revenue that is generated from the work that these companies are doing, we believe, helps to underwrite and support terrorism,” says William Thompson, the New York City comptroller who oversees the $80 billion in pension funds for all city workers.

Halliburton sells about $40 million a year worth of oil field services to the Iranian Government. (AP / CBS)

More from Doing Business With The Enemy at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/22/60minutes/main595214.shtml

Note this was published by CBS News on August 29, 2004.


Peace.

[Initech]

26. Halliburton is a piece of shit company.

Really, they're nothing more than an evil stain on America. They're a bunch of greedy asswipes who have bought and sold our government like the slave trades of the 1800's. It's sickening to think of the damage this piece of shit company has done to our country in the last five years.

[Dunvegan]

27. Halliburton=Machine for sucking profits out of anything, then moving on.

As far as services, they suck there too...but in the "no services for profit" way.

[tom_paine]

28. Goddamn! The treasonous incestuous corruption makes one sick

We ARE getting to be a LOT like the old Soviets, aren't we?

[DemReadingDU]

29. Thanks UL

Great collection of articles on Halliburton

[banana republican]

31. So What is the Phone Number????? Inquiring minds want to call (collect)

[bobbieinok]

33. RW brother (businessman) said Halliburton is only company large

enuff to do the jobs it's gotten contracts for

he said this a couple of years ago

[Patsy Stone]

34. Thanks as always, ul

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower.

[understandinglife]

37. Ike: "The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and

... will persist."

Such a wise and prophetic leader: truly unfortunate that our fellow citizens didn't do all they could to prevent the prophecy from becoming the reality all humanity now confronts -- the vast evil empire Bush and his neoconster corporatist buddies operate.


Peace.

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. Note this part well: ***A DUBAI-based subsidary***

"In Halliburton's case, it says Oriental Kish contracted out the work to Halliburton Products & Services Ltd., or HPSL, a Dubai-based subsidiary registered in the Cayman Islands, which works solely in Iran."

Dot-connecting, anyone?

UAE has been neck deep in BCCI and arms & drug smuggling too:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x490176
thread title (2-22-06 GD): UAE and BCCI >>>
Comment/excerpt: The Bank of England shuts down Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), the largest Islamic bank in the world. Based in Pakistan, this bank financed numerous militant organizations and laundered money generated by illicit drug trafficking and other illegal activities, including arms trafficking. Bin Laden and many other militants had accounts there. <Detroit News, 9/30/01> One money-laundering expert claims, “BCCI did dirty work for every major terrorist service in the world.” <Los Angeles Times, 1/20/02> American and British governments were aware of its activities yet allowed the bank to operate for years. The Pakistani ISI had major connections to the bank. However, as later State Department reports indicate, Pakistan remains a major drug trafficking and money-laundering center despite the bank's closing. <Detroit News, 9/30/01> “The CIA used BCCI to funnel millions of dollars to the fighters battling the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan” according to the Washington Post. A French intelligence report in 2001 suggests the BCCI network has been largely rebuilt by bin Laden (see October 2001). <Washington Post, 2/17/02> The ruling family of Abu Dhabi, the dominant emirate in the United Arab Emirates, owned 77 percent of the bank. <Los Angeles Times, 1/20/02>
And there is also the Ariana Airlines and massive DRUG & WEAPSONS TRAFFICKING: Comment/excerpt: “In 1996, al-Qaeda assumes control of Ariana Airlines, Afghanistan's national airline, for use in its illegal trade network. Passenger flights become few and erratic, as planes are used to fly drugs, weapons, gold, and personnel, primarily between Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Pakistan. The Emirate of Sharjah, in the UAE, becomes a hub for al-Qaeda drug and arms smuggling. Typically, “large quantities of drugs” are flown from Kandahar, Afghanistan, to Sharjah, and large quantities of weapons are flown back to Afghanistan. <Los Angeles Times, 11/18/01> … A former National Security Council official later claims the US is well aware at the time that al-Qaeda agents regularly fly on Ariana Airlines, but the US fails to act for several years. The US does press the UAE for tighter banking controls, but moves “delicately, not wanting to offend an ally in an already complicated relationship,” and little changes by 9/11. <Los Angeles Times, 11/18/01> Much of the money for the 9/11 hijackers flows though these Sharjah, UAE, channels…..“

[understandinglife]

38. The "dots" have merged into one giant black force threatening all ...

... of humanity and the planet.

Thank you, as always, for the relevant citations, Hope.


Peace.

[upi402]

36. shameful! like pirates! I heard about this sort of thing going on

I listen to AAR and must've heard it there.

[w4rma]

39. As long as the personnel are outsourced, its legal?

"These entities and activities are staffed and managed by non-U.S. personnel," says company spokesman Wendy Hall. "Halliburton's business is clearly permissible."

[greenbriar]

40. great minds

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x502853

[chat_noir]

41. K&R

[Time for change]

42. It's a good thing for the * administration that they can count on the CM

to protect them.

Otherwise there would be 24/7 coverage of nothing but this administration's scandals.

Thanks for posting ul.

[IronLionZion]

44. pirates and emperors

http://www.piratesandemperors.com/

[Harald Ragnarsson]

45. Isn't there a list of companies that the US can't do business with?

Several jobs I've had in the last decade had a list with 7 countries on it that if we were approached to buy or do business with anyone in that country, we had to deny them and report it.

I know there is some loophole Halliburton is using, ie, they have an office in the Caymans or something so they can do business then as an "international" company, blah, blah, blah. No matter how you slice it, it's another example that all this "free market" shit is just that, shit.

Some companies and people are More Equal than others.

[ClayZ]

47. .

:kick:

[Cleita]

48. I wish we could outlaw Halliburton here in the USA. Without

our government teet to suck money out of, Halliburton would have a hard time doing business in the rest of the world to make a profit. There is enough evidence, I believe, to close them down for breaking many laws. If a mom and pop company cheated and stole like Halliburton, they would have been shut down by the authorities years ago.